


Leave Me Your Stardust

by WardenRoot



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Green Arrow and the Canaries (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Jealous!Dinah, Jealousy, Pre-Relationship, a dash of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23770768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WardenRoot/pseuds/WardenRoot
Summary: "Besides, Liam will have my back.”“Okay, but call me if you need anything.” Laurel rolls her eyes, but Dinah doesn’t miss the way the corners of her mouth curve up just a touch.“Don’t wait up!” Laurel calls, already on her way out the door to meet thisLiam. She hadn’t told Dinah much, other than the fact he’s someone from her past, as inpre-Crisispast, and it makes Dinah question just about everything about him. But Laurel seems to trust him, whichshouldbe enough. And yet, her stomach coils at the thought of Laurel spending the night with him.or the one where someone from Laurel's past asks for her help and Dinah definitely isn't jealous at not being included
Relationships: Dinah Drake/Earth-2 Laurel Lance
Comments: 4
Kudos: 93





	Leave Me Your Stardust

**Author's Note:**

> For @dinahsirensworld on tumblr, who requested a jealous Dinah fic. I hope you like it ~~and that it was worth the wait~~ ♥
> 
> Title from the song Boats & Birds by Gregory and the Hawke, which I listened to while writing a majority of this fic though I listened to Juliana's cover of it.
> 
> Thank you to @AvaHasAClosetMurderBoard for the beta ♥

“You don’t need to come with. I know how busy you’ve been with both the bar and setting up the network lately, and this is my problem to solve. Besides, Liam will have my back.” Dinah frowns at Laurel’s words. She’s a grown woman and can make her own decisions, but the thought of Laurel going out without her leaves a bad taste in her mouth. They’ve grown into a team, and as much as Dinah used to work alone before, she’s become fond of having someone with her. But Laurel is right — Dinah  _ does _ have a lot to do.

“Okay, but call me if you need anything.” Laurel rolls her eyes, but Dinah doesn’t miss the way the corners of her mouth curve up just a touch.

“Don’t wait up!” Laurel calls, already on her way out the door to meet this  _ Liam _ . She hadn’t told Dinah much, other than the fact he’s someone from her past, as in  _ pre-Crisis _ past, and it makes Dinah question just about everything about him. But Laurel seems to trust him, which  _ should  _ be enough. And yet, her stomach coils at the thought of Laurel spending the night with him.

Despite what Laurel said, Dinah does in fact wait up, but true to her word, Laurel is nowhere to be seen, and Dinah ends up reluctantly going to sleep when her eyes simply refuse to stay open. 

Laurel is there in the morning, her head buried against the back of the couch as she grumbles out a complaint presumably about Dinah daring to be  _ awake _ and  _ make noise _ . It only earns her a chuckle as Dinah continues going about her morning routine. 

She finally sits up when Dinah moves a cup of coffee as close to her nose as she can manage. She does it with a pout, but accepts the cup and pulls her legs up enough that Dinah can sit down next to her, so close that Laurel's feet are pressing underneath her thigh. 

“How'd it go last night?” Dinah asks, noting how Laurel hadn't even partially undressed before going to sleep. 

“More shitty than I’d hoped,” Laurel says, a small smile finally gracing her lips as she takes a sip from her cup. “We're going back out whenever Liam gets his shit together.” Reaching for her phone, Laurel looks down at it with narrowed eyes. 

“Oh.” Dinah doesn't know why it comes as such a surprise, she had just thought she'd see her roommate for more than ten minutes today. “Do you need any help?”

“No, we’ve got it covered.  _ Now  _ I am going to shower and make sure he didn't fall in a ditch somewhere on his way home.” Laurel jumps up, discarding her coffee on the table and making Dinah miss her warmth. Dinah watches her leave with a sigh, finding herself hoping that Laurel is done with everything sooner rather than later. 

***

Dinah lets out a breath, reaching for her drink as she looks up from her page of numbers. The bar is pretty empty at the moment and so she’s decided to use the time to take inventory. When she gazes out the window to find a blonde head of hair heading towards the door, a stranger with their hood up following behind, that plan dissolves in the span of a second. Dinah eyes the piano, making a last minute decision to hurry over to it before the two figures outside can make it inside, all while telling herself it has nothing to do with how Laurel watching her play makes her feel. She simply needs a break from work.

It also has nothing to do with the fact that, as her fingers find the keys of the piano,  _ Sunny _ is the tune that flows out of them. Dinah closes her eyes as she sings and plays, only keeping her ears open long enough to hear Laurel and her  _ friend _ make it inside. As she continues to play, she feels the familiar burn of Laurel’s gaze on her, and an unbidden smile falls on her lips. As much as she loves playing just for the sake of it, there is something extra special about knowing Laurel is there to take it in. Dinah’s not quite sure  _ why _ — maybe it’s simply the fact that she finally has a friend who knows this side of her.

But regardless of the reason, a spark lights inside of her at the prospect, and Dinah doesn’t think she’ll ever stop chasing it.

And maybe that’s why, when she opens her eyes and finds Laurel deep in a conversation with Liam, eyes nowhere near the stage, it stings so much more than it should. She swallows back a lump growing in her throat as she closes the piano, all her desire to play suddenly gone. When she makes it to the bar, her bartender tells her there is a delivery for her out back, and despite her best efforts not to, Dinah can’t help but chance a glance at Laurel and her companion.

Pausing for a second to actually take him in, Dinah frowns. When Laurel had said he was from her pre-Crisis days, Dinah had expected someone  _ older _ — after all, they  _ are _ twenty years in the future. But Liam doesn’t look any older than them. She doesn’t know why this new information only makes the pit in her stomach grow.

Tearing her eyes away, she hurries out to the back. If the delivery is what she thinks it is, it will at least give her something to do for the rest of the day.

***

Dinah stands back and admires all the new additions to her living room. Technically this isn’t where they’re supposed to be, but she hasn’t had the time to figure out where to store them, so the living room it is. She doesn’t exactly feel like cramping it all up into the backroom of the bar. Though maybe underneath the bar… She remembers hearing about team Arrow’s first bunker being underneath something similar.

For now, though, her living room will do as the home of the workout equipment she’d bought for the Canary network. Dragging everyone to the local gym hadn’t sounded so convenient, and they are in need of a proper base anyway. 

Deciding the best thing to do now is try it all out, Dinah runs up to her room and changes into more appropriate attire.

By the time the hum of the elevator moving makes its way to her ears, alerting her that Laurel is coming home, she’s worked up a nice sweat. She can’t explain what overcomes her, but at the new information she gently puts the weights she’d been testing down and moves over to a contraption she hasn’t used a whole lot herself but has seen Oliver use enough that she thinks she could still use it in her sleep.

Positioning herself right underneath it, she jumps up and latches onto the bar, then promptly starts climbing the salmon ladder. She’s made it about two rungs when she hears the elevator doors open, but she waits until she’s reached the top to pause and turn her attention to the new presence in the apartment.

“...Hey,” Laurel says, brow creased as she takes in Dinah along with all the workout equipment.

“Hey,” Dinah responds, an easy smile on her lips as she dangles from the steel bar.

“What’s all this?” Laurel’s steps are hesitant as she walks further inside, shrugging her jacket off her shoulders.

“Workout equipment,” Dinah supplies helpfully, unable to hold back a smirk as Laurel rolls her eyes, throwing her jacket over the back of the couch.

“What’s it doing  _ here _ ?” she asks, kicking off her boots haphazardly as she stretches.

"We don't have anywhere else to put them," Dinah grunts out as she climbs to the next rung. 

"Right…" Dinah hears the familiar sound of Laurel's body hitting the couch, and she feels a pair of eyes follow her every motion. It takes every fiber of her being to refrain from letting a smug smile paint her lips at the attention. 

“How’d it go with Liam?” Dinah searches Laurel out again, finding her legs crossed on the cushions as she leans against the back of the couch, an unreadable expression on her face as she watches Dinah’s body move.

It takes a moment before she replies, and Dinah almost thinks she hadn’t heard her. “Better. We  _ think _ we might have a solid lead for tomorrow, I handed something over for William to trace.” Relief floods her at the thought that Laurel might soon be done working on this, but the familiar pit in her stomach grows again as she processes the back half of Laurel’s sentence.  _ She’d included William while insisting to Dinah they didn’t need help? _

“That’s good.” Dinah’s voice sounds much stronger than she feels.

“Yeah.” Silence falls around them, the only sound the one caused by the movement of the salmon ladder, until Laurel shuffles around to lay down and breaks it. “I was planning on catching an early night to be ready whenever William texts.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” is all Dinah gives in response, mind turning with thoughts of Laurel spending more time with Liam,  _ prioritizing _ him. And leaving Dinah completely out. She’s not even fully aware of her continued use of the ladder as more and more treacherous thoughts invade her brain.

She and Laurel are  _ fine _ . Laurel just simply hadn’t contacted her because she wants to give her space to focus on the bar and the network. This means nothing for their… friendship. Laurel can spend time with — work  _ missions _ with — whoever she wants. Besides, at the end of the day, Laurel still comes back to the apartment, to steal Dinah’s food and beer. And despite having insisted she would find her own place quickly, she had kept staying at Dinah’s, sleeping on her shitty couch. That had to count for something.

“ _ D! _ ” Dinah blinks, ceasing her movements as her eyes find Laurel’s face. Laurel has sat back up on the couch, looking ready to jump to her feet at any moment.

“Sorry,” Dinah lets out, letting her fingers slip from the bar as she braces for her landing. Laurel’s eyes are narrowed, her head tilted slightly to the side, and Dinah can’t stand the sight of it right now. She’s being stupid and Laurel doesn’t deserve to be pulled into that. “Goodnight, Laurel.” Laurel doesn’t give an answer, seemingly frozen in place as she watches Dinah leave up the stairs. Dinah shrugs, too worn out to think any more into the issue as she makes for the shower.

***

The next morning, Laurel is gone before Dinah wakes up. Laurel  _ had _ told her she was leaving as soon as they had an update, so it’s not so surprising, but it still has Dinah’s heart dropping. After how last night went, she had hoped to see her and lighten the air, along with that ever present pit in her stomach.

If nothing else, she thinks, at least she will still see her tonight.

Except she doesn’t.

Laurel doesn’t step foot near the bar once during the day, and when evening comes, Dinah sits up as long as she can muster, waiting for Laurel to come  _ home _ . She never does, but intent on not leaving before she knows Laurel is there, Dinah ends up falling asleep on the couch, breathing in the scent that has rubbed off on the cushions during the many weeks Laurel has slept there.

She wakes up in a cold sweat some hours later, not quite aware of her surroundings at first when she doesn’t find the familiarity of her own bed. The air she breathes in, however, is all too familiar. After blinking profusely and shaking her head, it dawns on her where she’d slept. She reaches for the phone haphazardly thrown on the table, creasing her brow when she finds the time to be four-thirty in the morning. It’s not clear to her why that’s so weird until she realizes that if she’s sleeping on the couch and Laurel isn’t there with her, Laurel must never have come home.

Her blood runs cold at the revelation.

Her first thought is that Laurel must have gotten hurt — or worse. She’s already pulled up Mia’s number, her thumb a mere inch away from pressing it, before a much more logical conclusion makes itself known — Laurel has finally decided to spend the night somewhere else. An unwanted thought of Laurel wrapped up in a warm pair of arms, sleeping on an actual  _ bed _ instead of a subpar couch, snakes its way into Dinah’s thoughts. She tries to force it away, but it refuses to budge.

She always knew, deep down, that the day would come.

That Laurel would realize she could have so much more somewhere else.

Dinah doesn’t even know why she stuck around as long as she did, really. It’s not like Dinah has much more than free alcohol to offer. Laurel’s better off somewhere else, with another body to keep her warm. Dinah’s eyes burn but she refuses to acknowledge the cause, instead simply laying back down and trying to succumb to sleep once more.

But sleep refuses to take her, and the more time passes, the more she worries that maybe her first instinct was right and Laurel  _ is _ hurt. Dinah would never forgive herself if she let her bleed out in a ditch somewhere, especially without doing nothing to try and find her.

Grabbing her phone and unlocking it once more, Mia’s contact information stares back at her. Dinah doesn’t even think as she presses her number, lifting her phone to her ear as she waits for Mia to pick up.

_ “Aunt Dinah?” _ Mia’s gruffy voice sounds, Dinah’s call clearly having woken her up.

“Did you hear from Laurel at all yesterday?” Dinah asks, foregoing a proper greeting. Silence sounds from the other end as Mia presumably thinks it through.

_ “No,” _ she says in the end, drawing the word out.  _ “Why? Is something wrong?”  _ Dinah can hear shuffling through the phone, and Mia’s voice sounds much more awake.

“I don’t know,” she says honestly, turning her eyes to the entrance where she can just barely see an empty spot where Laurel’s jacket usually hangs. “She hasn’t come home yet, and she’s chasing a—” Dinah sighs, once more thinking about the fact that Laurel simply could have just decided not to come back, and the kids shouldn’t have to worry over nothing. “I’m probably just overreacting, it  _ is _ Laurel we’re talking about. Go back to sleep, Mia.”

_ “Are you sure? If something’s wrong—” _

“I’m sure, I’ll let you know if anything worrying comes up.” As she says goodbye to Mia, it occurs to Dinah she hadn’t even tried calling Laurel. Rolling her eyes at her own erratic behavior, she quickly finds Laurel’s number and gives it a call. 

She curses when it goes straight to voicemail. 

Asking herself if it’s really the right move just because Laurel didn’t come home  _ one _ night, Dinah gets up and searches for her tablet. She’s just going to run a quick search for Laurel’s phone, if she gets a hit and it’s not a ditch somewhere, she’ll let it be and chalk it up to Laurel probably — hopefully — sleeping.

Of course, the answer her tablet gives her is “No Location Available”. Chewing her lip, Dinah quickly pulls up another piece of software and instead plugs in everything she knows about Liam. it takes a bit of wrangling, but in the end she finds a phone number she traces to some street in a nondescript part of town. Quickly throwing on some dark clothing and fetching the keys to her bike, Dinah speeds over to it, keeping the trace going on her phone in case he decides to move.

She finds him walking along the street, looking like he’s about to jump out of his skin when Dinah pulls the bike to a stop right in front of him. Dinah ignores it, leaning her bike on the kickstand as fast as she can manage before sliding off it.

“Where is Laurel?” she asks, her eyes dangerous as she steps towards him. She had expected to see them together, and seeing him all alone has all her warning signs going off.

“I—” he chokes out, eyes running over Dinah’s form like he hasn’t processed she’s actually there.

“I  _ said _ ,” Dinah says, grabbing him by his jacket and shoving him against a stone wall, “ _ where _ is Laurel.”

“I left her with some guy!” he yells, shooting his hands up in the air.

“Who?” Dinah narrows her eyes, tightening her grip on Liam’s jacket.

“I don’t know his name! She said she trusts him, that’s good enough for me!”

“You didn’t think to  _ at least _ get a number?” 

“I’ve got Laurel’s number!” Dinah’s nostrils flare as she tries to think what to do with him — or even if she believes him. “Look, I can take you there! I don’t remember the address but I remember the way!”

Dinah takes a moment to think it over, pressing him just a little harder against the stone before making up her mind and releasing him. “Fine, but if you’re lying and she’s not there, you should know I’m not the forgiving type.”

“Duly noted, ma’am,” he says, his arms still raised. As Dinah moves back towards her bike, she just barely picks up on his next words, spoken under his breath and clearly to himself. “Jeez, Laurel didn’t tell me her girlfriend’s so  _ scary _ .”

“What did you just say?” Dinah spins back around to face him.

“Uhhh,” he lets out, his hand scratching the back of his neck.

“We’re not dating.” Dinah crosses her arms in front of her chest, wondering what the hell Laurel’s told him about them.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to assume!” Liam raises his hands again, clearly back on the defensive. “It’s just, she never stops talking about you, and when we went to your bar the other day, it was, like, impossible to get her to focus on anything else than you playing. She even wanted to introduce us, but then she looked away for one second and next thing we knew, you were gone. She’s never really wanted me to meet anyone in her life, not after— Anyway, I’m sorry, ma’am.”

It’s weird to hear someone around her own age refer to her like that, but Dinah can’t be bothered to be hung up on it. “Whatever,” she grumbles out, a plethora of feelings warring inside of her as she slides a leg over her bike. “Just get on.”

***

The ride takes an eternity, and every bone in Dinah’s body is screaming to have Laurel in front of her, to feel her in her arms and know that she’s okay. It occurs to her that she hadn’t even thought to ask Liam  _ why _ he would leave her with some stranger in the first place, but it’s too late now, with Dinah having to focus all her attention on the directions Liam occasionally shouts into her ear.

The buildings around her get progressively more familiar, and it’s quite apparent when they’ve entered the  _ rich _ part of the city. Dinah narrows her eyes, stopping in front of a building she knows all too well. She doesn’t know if she should be more relieved this is where Liam dropped Laurel off, or hurt that Laurel chose to go here instead of home to Dinah.

“So can I go now…?” Liam asks once they’ve gotten off the bike.

“Hell no,” Dinah says, grabbing onto the wrist of his jacket as she stomps inside the building. The doorman almost stops them before recognizing Dinah’s face, quickly opening the door for them and getting out off Dinah’s path at the dangerous look she carries. Dinah doesn’t miss the cautious glance he gives Liam, but he doesn’t dare interfere and that’s enough for Dinah as she pulls her companion into the elevator.

As she waits to reach the penthouse apartment, Dinah is practically fuming. Liam smartly keeps his mouth shut and his eyes away from her, and if it hadn’t been for her grip on his jacket, she might have forgotten all about his presence as her gaze burns through the elevator doors, willing them to open. It somehow takes even longer for the elevator to climb through the floors than it did for them to drive over here.

When it finally stops, opening up to reveal a familiar apartment along with two bodies belonging to two people in big,  _ big  _ trouble, Dinah shoves Liam out and lets go of her hold on him, taking a few steps closer to the couch Laurel is currently resting on, her tank pulled up to show a once-white bandage with blood seeping through it on the right side of her stomach. Laurel’s expression is one of resignation, her jaw clenched as she waits for Dinah’s reaction.

_ William’s _ is one of pure terror, head locked looking over his shoulder at Dinah from where he’s gingerly sitting on the coffee table. “I can ex— Actually, I can’t explain.”

“What. The.  _ Hell.  _ Happened?” Dinah asks, turning her full attention on Laurel.

“What does it look like happened?” Laurel shoots back, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she defiantly meets Dinah’s gaze.

“ _ Laurel _ .” Laurel remains quiet and Dinah gets the urge to  _ scream _ , but she didn’t come here to ruin William’s apartment. “Leave,” Dinah says, looking between William and Liam. Liam looks like he wants to argue, but William smartly jumps up and pulls him with him into another room. Turning her attention back to Laurel, Dinah moves to take William’s place, some of her fight leaving her.

“What happened?” she asks again, softer this time as she reaches to pull the bloody bandage off.

Laurel’s brow creases, her own fight leaving her eyes as she clearly thinks over exactly what to tell her. Dinah allows her a few seconds as she pulls the first aid kit William had open on the table closer to her, finding the cleaning alcohol and some cotton. “William got a hit on the lead, so we went to follow it. Fight broke loose, because why wouldn’t it, and we had it under control, until Liam cried out and I took my attention off of the person I was fighting. Next thing I know, my favorite jacket was ruined—” Laurel glances to where her leather jacket has been thrown onto the floor, and Dinah frowns as she realizes Laurel had been in a fight without her Canary suit. “—and a knife was piercing my skin.  _ Seriously _ , what happened to good old fashioned bullets?”

Dinah rolls her eyes, pressing the cotton to Laurel’s stitches as she wonders if she should redo them. It is very clear that William is the one out of the kids who never had to learn how to patch up a wound in either timeline.

“Why here?” Dinah doesn’t mean for her voice to come out so  _ fragile _ , nor for the hurt in her eyes to be so unmasked as she looks up at Laurel’s face. Laurel’s lips open but no words come out, and the answer to her question is clear as day. Laurel had chosen to go somewhere else. Laurel hadn’t  _ wanted _ to come home. Hell, she probably doesn’t even look at it as home, just a place to rest her head while she looks for a proper one.

Dinah pulls her hand back, being this close to Laurel suddenly overheating her in addition to siphoning all her energy. She is left to wonder if, if Laurel hadn’t gotten hurt, she wouldn’t have gone home with Liam instead. “I’ll tell Liam to finish this up,” she says, getting ready to leave, but Laurel’s fingers close around her wrist before she gets the chance, freezing her in place.

“D,” she whispers, her tongue poking out to wet her lips as she looks at Dinah with an indecipherable expression. Dinah waits, her heart beating so fast she’s almost afraid it’s going to escape. It takes a few excruciatingly slow seconds before Laurel continues, speaking lowly under her breath, “I told Liam to take me here because I didn’t want to worry you. You’ve got so much on your mind, and this is just a scratch, I’ll be fine after some rest. I’m not worth getting you worked up over something like this.”

At that, Dinah feels her jaw clench again, a new kind of anger flaring up in her. “Don’t you dare say that,” she says, looking straight into Laurel’s averting gaze. “ _ Laurel, _ you are worth all the worrying in the world, if that’s what it takes to make sure you’re okay.”

“I—” Laurel swallows, and there’s a new shine to her eyes when she finally looks back at Dinah. Laurel gives her a small nod, and it’s enough for Dinah to let it go  _ for now _ . She feels the fight simmering back down as their gazes stay locked.

Laurel shuffles closer, and if Dinah had the energy, she would reprimand her for moving with her injury. But she stays frozen, her eyes the only things moving as they follow the hand Laurel lifts up so she can uncharacteristically gently press the tips of her fingers against Dinah’s cheek. Dinah reaches out again, but instead of cleaning Laurel’s wound, her hand skirts across to Laurel’s left, tracing a small, round scar resting there.

“I get that you’re too stubborn to, but William should have at least called me.”

“I may have threatened him not to ever tell you about this…” Laurel offers her a sheepish look, and the roll Dinah’s eyes decide to do is completely instinctive. 

“Of course you did.” Dinah sighs, dragging her fingers away from the scar she’d caused so long ago and focusing her attention back on the fresh wound. As she looks up to meet Laurel’s gaze, she can’t shake Liam’s words from earlier, and she can’t stop what falls from her mouth. “You know, Liam thought we were dating…”

Laurel tenses, then relaxes, shaking her head. “ _ God _ , that kid.”

“Kid?”

Laurel stares at her like she’s stupid, before finally explaining herself. “D, he was like barely a teenager when we met, running around doing errands for one of Diaz’s men. You  _ do _ remember that we’re twenty years in the future, right?”

“Right.” Dinah exhales rather forcefully, how ridiculous she’s been throughout all this finally hitting her. Even though she had expected him to be older, it had never occurred to her quite how young he would have to have been to match them now. “Man, William is  _ awful _ at stitches.” Laurel chuckles at Dinah’s words, and even though it ends with a hiss as her body pulls on the wound, Dinah can’t help but be pleased by it.

“Yeah, he should probably stick to computers,” Laurel agrees, smiling at Dinah.

“So,” Dinah says, gently undoing the old stitches, “next time you need patching up, you come to me.” It takes longer than Dinah would like, but in the end Laurel concedes, nodding her agreement as Dinah restitches the wound. “I mean it,” she adds with a whisper, the thought that she could have lost Laurel tonight had things gone differently sneaking its way into her mind. A hand cups her cheek, forcing her gaze up to Laurel’s.

“I promise,” she says, brushing her thumb against Dinah’s skin. Dinah loses herself in the sensation and those piercing green eyes, barely aware of her palm smoothing out against Laurel’s stomach, and somewhere at the back of her mind, Liam’s words replay again and again and again. Dinah never expected to wish them as true as she does in this moment.

Of course, the boys choose that moment to walk back into the room. Both of their heads turn to face them, and Laurel’s hand falls from Dinah’s cheek as Dinah’s is pulled back from Laurel’s stomach.

“See?” William says, gesturing to the two of them. “I told you Aunt Dinah wouldn’t  _ actually _ kill her.”

Dinah just barely catches the dangerously mischievous glint in Liam’s eyes before he speaks, and if there was any doubt before that Laurel had been an integral part of his life as a kid, that’s all gone now. “Probably ‘cause they’re in love.” He makes a show of saying it under his breath but loudly enough for them to hear.

“Shut up, Liam,” Laurel growls, throwing one of William’s fancy couch pillows in Liam’s general direction. 

The worst part of it all, Dinah thinks, is that William does nothing to dispute Liam’s words, and as Dinah averts her gaze, she feels like a deer caught in headlights, her heart rate increasing impossibly at the thought that  _ maybe _ Laurel might reciprocate her newly realized feelings.

“What? It’s not like it’s a secret,” Liam says with a shrug, pulling William back through the door they came from before the next pillow can be thrown at him, hitting said door with deadly accuracy.

“I’m going to kill him,” Laurel insists, her jaw clenched, and all Dinah can do is laugh.

“Why?” she finds herself asking, finally collecting herself enough to put a new bandage over Laurel’s stitches. “You don’t usually care about…  _ rumors _ .”

“I don’t.” Laurel’s eye twitches as she looks between Dinah and the closed door, and Dinah can practically see the gears in her brain turning.

“Then why the reaction,  _ Ms. Lance _ ?” Dinah asks, her hand once more flattening against Laurel’s stomach.

“Why don’t  _ you  _ care?” Laurel shoots back at her with narrowed eyes, pushing herself up and closer to Dinah so their heads are level with suddenly barely any distance at all between them. Dinah’s hand falls away with the new angle, falling into place atop Laurel’s thigh instead. Laurel arches a perfect eyebrow at her but makes no objection, so Dinah’s hand moves higher, its motions out of her control as it searches out Laurel’s hip.

“I asked you first,” she says, eyes falling to Laurel’s lips that are oh so dangerously close. Biting down on her own, she looks up to find Laurel’s gaze zeroed in on where her lower lip disappears between her teeth.

“Because,” Laurel says, reaching out for the edge of Dinah’s sweater, “Liam’s a little shit.”

“That all, huh?” Dinah’s fingers push back up to Laurel’s bare skin, tracing her side.

“Yep.” Laurel tugs on her sweater, forcing Dinah closer still. “Now you answer mine.” Laurel’s lips are so near now that Dinah can feel the brush of her words against her own.

Heart nearly breaking out of her chest, Dinah decides to take a chance, letting out, “I don’t make a habit of denying the truth,” before surging forward, finally connecting their lips. She can practically feel Laurel’s eyeroll, but it doesn’t matter as her hand snakes around Dinah’s waist, pressing her forwards. Dinah lets her body slide from the table and onto Laurel’s lap as she moves to deepen the kiss, but her tongue has just barely made it inside Laurel’s mouth when Laurel hisses and Dinah pulls back.

“Sorry,” she whispers, resting her forehead against Laurel’s as she takes care to keep herself away from Laurel’s stomach.

“I’m not,” Laurel says, following her words with another kiss. Dinah sighs into it as she does her best to keep some space between their bodies.

When there is sudden whooping from somewhere behind the couch, Laurel throws another wayward pillow, but instead of breaking the kiss, only pulls Dinah closer. Dinah might feel self-conscious about it if Laurel’s lips weren’t so darn hypnotizing.


End file.
